Island



G. H. GORLISS. STEAM PUMPING APPARATUS.

No. 17,423. Patented June 2, 1857.

I new GEO. H. (-ORLISS, OE PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

STEAM PUMPING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,423, dated June 2, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnoncn H. CoRLIss, of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam Pumping Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which fore constructed upon this principle are very efiicient so far as respects the pumping of Water and thesimplicity of their construction, they are nevertheless deficient in respect to the economical consumption of steam, as in the absence of a fly wheel having suflicient momentum, there is no efiicient means, of equalizing the varying pressure of steam Worked expansively in the steam cylinder; hence in such apparatus the steam is of necessity permitted to operate upon the piston with its initial pressure during the greater part or whole of the stroke, and the great saving in fuel which is eifected by working steam with a high degree of expansion is not obtained.

The object of my invention is to enable me to work the steam expansively to the farthest practical limit, and to obtain'the saving in fuel effected thereby, without the necessity of employing a fiy-wheel. -My invention also enables me to obtain an equable discharge of water from the apparatus without the necessity of employing a largeair vessel for the purpose. It enables me moreover to operate a series of cylinders in connection with a single crank and crank pin without requiring a length of crank pin equal to the collective breadths of the stubends of their several connecting rods.

My improved steam pumping apparatus as represented in the accompanying drawmg consists of a series of steam cylinders and pump cylinders arranged radially around a common center at which a crank shaft is situated.

The steam cylinders, A A A A, in the present instance are five in number, and are firmly secured to a ring bed plate which surrounds the central crank shaft B; each steam cylinder is fitted with appropriate steam and exhaust valves, which maybe of any good construction now in use, and each is also fitted with suitable expansive valve gear by which the admission and exit of steam is duly regulated. Any good expansive valve gear suitable for operatmg the valves may be used for this purpose'but I prefer to use that for whichLetters Patent of the United States have been granted to me. The valve gear used may be operated from the central crank shaft by eccentrics or other suitable means.

The pumps are situated between the steam cylinders, so that each steam cylinder operates in connection with two pumps, which in the present instance are of the plunger variety and single acting. Each pump is fitted with suitable entry and exitvalves, and with water passages D, E, by which water is permitted to pass into and out of the pump barrel C. The exit water passages are all connected with a ring discharge pipe F, which receives the Water discharged by all the pumps and conveys it to the main. The entry water passages D, are all connected with a ring pipe G which conducts the water to them' and also forms the bedplate by which the various pump barrels and steam cylinders are rigidly connected together.

The piston rod of each steam cylinder is fitted with a crosshead H, which works in suitable guides I, I. The plunger of each pump is also fitted with a crosshead J working in suitable guides K, K. The crosshead of one of the steam cylinders is connected with the crank pin 0 by a connecting rod L of peculiar construction; that partof this connecting rod which surrounds the crank pin. being enlarged so as to form a disk p connecting rods by suitable bearings or pilthe force exerted by each piston separately .Mwit

of suflicient size to sustain as many pins, 5, except one, as there are pumps and steam cylinders in the apparatus. The disk is formed in this instance of two plates which are connected by the pins. Each one of these ins is connected by a connecting rod the crosshead of one of the pumps, or of one of the steam cylinders; so that all the pumps and cylinders in the whole apparatus are in fact connected with the disk p, which is fitted with brasses to work upon the crank pin 0 of a crank N. The crank N, which is thus common to the whole number of steam cylinders and pumps, is secured to the :gper end of a shaft B, which is support in a direction perpendicular to the low blocks which are connected in a substantial manner with the ring bed plate G of the ap aratus. V

y arranging the pumps and steam cylinders in the manner thus described, a single crank is made the means of regulating the length of strokeof all the pumps and steam cylinders; it also combines the whole system in such manner that each pump as well as each steam cylinder is compelled to work in regular succession throughout the whole series, so that there is no period of time during which some members of the series of pumps are not forcing water at variable rates depending upon the angular position of the crank with respect to them. This regular succession in the movement of the umps causes a corresponding regularity lnthe flow of water at the delivery end of the exit pipe F, thus avoiding the employment of an air vessel of large size WhlCh is always required when the flow of water is intermittent.

When steam is worked expansively in a. steam cylinder, the force exerted by the piston at different parts of its stroke varies om the highest amount, at the commencement of the stroke, due to the initial pressure of the steam as it flows from the boiler, to the lowest amount, at the end of the stroke when the steam has expanded as far as the working of the engine will permit. In the combination herein described, the steam pistons are necessarily at different parts 0 their strokes at the same time, and the aggregate amounts or sums of the forces exert by them at different positions of the crank are nearly equal, however much may vary; for as the force exerted by one piston decreases to its lowest limit as the steam acting upon it is expanded, another in the series is exerting the full force due to the pressure of the steam flowin from the boiler. Hence in such a combination theva ing pressure exerted by any one piston y working the steam expansively to the farthest practical limit does-not affeet the uniform transmission of force to the pumps, and the disk p constitutes the common recipient to which the collective force of the different steam pistons is imparted, and from which it is transmitted or distributed to the pumps. Moreover as the steam cylinders are set at difierentangles with respect to the crank, some one of the connecting rods is always in a position to cause the crank to revolve, and therefore a fly wheel is unnecessary either to insure the revolution of the crank shaft or to equalize by its momentum the varying pressure caused by working steam expansively, even to the farthest limit permitted by the mechanism which operates the valves. It will also be perceived that in such an arrangement and combination of steam cylinders and pumps, the strain upon the central shaft, and consequently the friction thereof, will be comparatively small; because the power exerted by each steam cylinder is to a greater or less extent utilized at once by its adjacent pumps, to which the disk extremity of the connecting rod acts as a crosshead, and when the steam in any steam cylinder is exerting a greater force than the adjacent pumps can utilize, the same disk transmits the surplus force to the opposite pumps in the series. Hence the function of the crank and its shaft'in this system is mainly to limit the length of the strokes and to cause each pump and each steam cylinder to act in succession, by operating the valve motion of each steam cylinder at the proper time.

By the employment of the disk connecting rod which I have described the stub ends of all the connect-ing rods of the pumps and steam cylinders may all be arranged to operate in the same plane, although each one is connected with one and the same crank pin; hence the latter may be of no greater length than is necessary for strength, in place of being of sufficient length to re ceive the stub ends of the whole set of con necting rods applied to it directly instead of through the intervention of the disk.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The arrangement of a series of steam cylinders and pumps combined radially around a central crank shaft with a central crank and crank shaft with which the whole series of pumps and steam cylinders are connected substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

2'. I also claim the method herein described of forming the connection between the pistons of a series of cylinders and a single crank pin by means of a disk ended connecting rod which is appropriated to one piston in the series and which is fitted with a series of pins to which the remaining connecting rods of the series of cylinders are applied,

thus obviating the direct application of all the Connecting rods in the series to the same crank pin.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

GEO. H. CORLISS. Witnesses:

' WM. COSGROVE,

W. L. BENNEM.

DISCLAIMER.

To the Commissioner of Patents:

Your petitioner, GEORGE H. CoRLiss, of the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, represents that he is the sole owner of Letters-Patent #17,423, granted to him June 2, A. D. 1857, for an improvement in steam pumping apparatus; that he has reason to believe that through inadvertence, accident, or mistake, the

specification and claim of said Letters-Patent are too broad, including that of which he was not the first inventor. Your petitioner, therefore, hereby enters his disclaimer to that part of the claim in said specification which is in the following words, viz:

Also, the method herein described, of forming the connection between the pistons of a series of cylinders and a single crank pin (a), by means of a disk-ended connecting rod (L), which is appropriated to one piston in the. series, and which is fitted with a series of pins (S), to which the remaining connecting rods (M) are applied, thus obviatin the direct application of all the connectlng rods in the series to the same crank pin.

GEO. H. CORLISS.

Witness En. H. RAYNSFORD. 

